Campouts were always an adventure, whether they were away from camp or nearby. Edna Young (1932) shared her experience of her local hike. “One day we took an overnight hike about a mile and a half and planned to sleep on the shore, but we had to come home because a storm came up. The lake was not very populated and we had hiked to a place called “Recreation Hill”, which was to the right of the camp as you look across the lake. We walked home holding hands and later the counselors went across the lake to get our blanket rolls by boat. It was nasty and we stayed close to shore. They were might worried about us and there were big lights by the boathouse to direct us back home.”
Susan Bradford (1965) recalled a trip to Rollways for several days with the older girls, when they slept in a pavilion in sleeping bags on a bluff overlooking the AuSable River. “It was a huge gorge with hundreds of steps that took us down to the river. At night we told scary stories, made S’mores by the campfire and enjoyed having our outing away from the younger campers.”
Overnights were always special for Molly Olson and Judy MacNicols(1946), even when they just canoed to the right side of Loon Lake to Hale Park. “We did have an overnight canoe or rowboat trip across the lake for a campout with no tents,” said Judy, who remembered the rowing, campfire with hot dogs and sleeping on the ground “roughing it”.
In 1955 Minette Jacques said only the good swimmers were allowed to take the rowboats and camp overnight at Hale Park, where they made pancakes over the fire. A second overnight was on Chapel Hill with foil hobo dinners, but the fun trips were in the back of the pickup truck singing “We Are The Girls From Camp Maqua” all the way to Rollways, where they camped under the pavilion.
There was a group of girls that Liz Anderson recalled who even camped in the seventies on an overnight at Camp Iroquois before Camp Maqua merged with the boys camp. Jeff Funk wrote about the campouts in the late seventies, at the end of the camp’s existence.
“The weather on the campouts was terrific. Stars were shining bright and the moon was glowing. There was no sign of bad weather at all. This is where some of the cabins slept out. Algonquin was out at the tennis courts sleeping under the stars. Potawatami and Shoshone were at Round Lake. After they got there, the found out they had forgotten the milk, Menominee was camped out at the old horse corral, sleeping under the stars. The mosquitoes were very heavy there. Seminole slept out at the archery range. B—? Walked out there and everyone was scared to death. They thought he was a big monster.”
The young girl who wrote the article in the “Loon” of 1965 continued with her adventures on camping after her fun truck ride. “The boss says to go get some wood for the fire. You look all around the woods, but find only rotten or pine. When you can’t find any, you go further in the woods. Then you realize you are lost. You remember your Girl Scout rules and sit down. The whole camp has been looking for you. After you hear them coming, you stand up just to find that you have been sitting in a patch of poison ivy. The camp has found enough wood for a fire, but every time you light a match to start a fire, the wind blows it out and you end up eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”
“Now you are ready for bed,” she continued. “The mosquitoes are terrible and the spiders are crawling all over the ground. Finally, you fall asleep, but not for long. A sudden cloudburst sends everyone running for shelter. After you are settled, you can’t go to sleep. You forgot your pillow and the cement floor is like sleeping on a pillow full of rocks. In the morning when it’s time for breakfast, you find the milk is sour and bacon is spoiled. Now it’s time to go back to Camp Maqua. You have no brush to brush your “rat’s nest”. When you get back to camp you will have the quietest rest period in the whole camp.”
What do you remember of your overnights that were close to home?